If You Can Master This One Leadership Quality, The Rest WIll Be Easy

Is your church a revolving door of disgruntled staff, or a harmonious haven? Join me, Todd Rhoades, as we unravel the often-undiscussed fabric of effective church leadership: the art of fostering positive relationships. Leaning on the wisdom of Gandhi, this episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast navigates the transitional landscape from an age of brute strength to one of emotional intelligence in leadership. Hear the candid conversations that expose the harsh truth about the discord in church teams and the dire consequences it brings—such as high staff turnover and church splits.

We're not just diagnosing problems; we're prescribing solutions. With the insights gleaned from my work with chemistrystaffing.com, I share how cultivating a people-centered leadership approach is crucial for church vitality. Reflect on your church's dynamics, and consider whether it's nurturing a cohesive environment or constantly dousing relational fires. If you're ready to lead with a heart for connection and a vision for unity, this episode will guide you on the path to becoming the leader your church deserves—one who champions strong relationships and champions a healthy church culture.

Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Okay, I don't often quote Gandhi, but I saw this quote from Gandhi and it made me think. Here's the quote leadership at one time meant muscles, but today, leadership means getting along with people. We're going to talk about that today here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Thanks for joining us. My name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom, and today we're talking about if you can master this one leadership quality. The rest will be easy. Let's start off with that quote by Gandhi. Again, this is the quote leadership at one time meant muscles, but today it means getting along with people, and I think that's a great quote. And truth is, I know a lot of leaders just can't seem to get along with people. Let me be more specific. Okay, I know a lot of church leaders that can't seem to get along with people, and that's honestly one of the reasons that churches split. It's one of the reasons that pastors and church staff leave. It's one of the reasons that chemistry staffing and other search firms like us exist is because people can't get along, and the best leaders I know know how to get along with people. They know how to get along with their spouse. They're able to get along with their staff. They're able to get along with their elder board or their governing body and they get along with most people they come in contact with, and candidates and churches they can't get along with.

Speaker 1: 1:36

People are pretty easy to spot. Here's some distinctives. Okay, ask yourself these questions Are you highly opinionated? Do you freely share those opinions with people, even when they don't ask? That might be characteristic that you're a leader that can't get along with people. Leaders they can't get along with people speak negatively about their current situation, and not just some of the time, but, like most, all the time. They're always negative about something and that negativity corresponds to their relationships. These people don't stay in one place for too long because they take people off and it gets to the point where they just need to move on. These kind of people are easy to spot because they're quick to blame others. It's never their fault, it's always somebody else's fault. If you're quick to blame others, you're probably finding that you're leaving your church every two, three years and trying to get a clean slate, and finally, they tend to think more highly of themselves than others that are around them.

Speaker 1: 2:40

And churches that can't get along with people churn through staff with great regularity. We have an internal list here. We see a lot of resumes from there. There are 300,000 churches in the country, but there are churches, let me tell you. There are churches that have a reputation 300,000 churches and I could rattle off a good number of churches that have a reputation that they just churn through staff. They can't keep staff and it's because they can't get along.

Speaker 1: 3:14

It's the churches that can't get along churn staff, but candidates that can't get along change positions every couple of years, two, three years. I can tell by looking at, sometimes, a resume where people have been at five, six, eight, 10 churches and they've never been any place longer than two or three years. That's a red flag. So let's face it Leadership, when it comes right down to it, is people based, and if you can't get along with the people, if you can't get along with the people, no one will follow you. And when that happens, the only thing to do is move on, find another church, find another staff person. And that's one of the reasons that Matt Stain and I started chemistry staffing years ago is that we want to try to work hard to find people that are great leaders, and we have the honor and privilege of working with some great churches. As a matter of fact, we only work with churches that we think are healthy. We don't take on churches and searches from churches that we know are just that we wouldn't feel comfortable sending people to. So we look for churches that are healthy and that are going to be great landing places for great candidates.

Speaker 1: 4:28

So here's a question for you today how is your church and how are you doing in here? Does your church get along well with people? Do you keep staff? Do you avoid? Are there tons of conflict? Are there always fires to be put out? And if you're a staff person, how well do you get along with people?

Speaker 1: 4:54

Leadership is people more than it is muscles, and you need to learn to get along with people. Your leadership really does depend on it. So, how you doing? I'd love to hear how you doing. If you have any issues or anything you'd like to talk about. Maybe you've got a topic you would love to hear me talk about here at the podcast. I would love to hear from you. I read each and every email that comes in at podcastingatchemistrystaffingcom. Thanks so much. We're here every day, monday through Friday, with a short five to ten minute. It's not an emotional. Hopefully it's an encouragement, hopefully it's a challenge to you and your leadership at your church, and we will be back here again tomorrow. Thanks so much for joining us and we will see you again.